There are no items scattered on the arena giving enhanced speed etc. You just power up when you press the special button( R1 for PS2,Z for GCN.) In Deception the special move button always does throws so I guess you can call it the throw button. In Deadly Alliance the special button does all sorts of things such as evade(an automatic jump backwards) reversal ( grabbing the opponents attack and countering) Impale weapon ( stab) power-up(character grows big for a half a second and when he shrinks his moves are much more powerful for a limited time and of course regular throws.